New Braniff Workers Get Lower Pay

March 31, 1988|By Adam Yeomans of The Sentinel Staff

More than 200 new employees of Braniff Inc. will be paid substantially less than their co-workers until December under a new union contract negotiated last week as part of Braniff's acquisition of Florida Express Inc.

By Dec. 1, however, new workers hired as part of Braniff's expansion in Orlando will earn the same starting hourly wage as Braniff employees before the merger. Braniff operates its busiest hub at Orlando International Airport.

The Dallas-based airline will not operate a two-tier wage scale, which many airlines do to reduce operating costs, although new workers will be paid less initially, Braniff and union officials said Wednesday. Until Dec. 1, new employees will earn 17 percent less than their co-workers.

''I think Braniff understands there's no sense in proposing it to us,'' Tom Burnette, president of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local No. 19, said of a two-tier scale. The Teamsters represent about 1,400 ground- support workers at Braniff and and 450 at Florida Express. Before the merger, Florida Express workers did not belong to any union.

Braniff has hired about 70 reservation and customer-service agents since January and plans to hire about 160 more workers, said Kirk Mueller, Braniff's vice president of personnel. About 300 people attended a job fair conducted by Braniff in Orlando earlier this week.

The airline and the union reached agreement on a contract for reservations agents, customer-service representatives and other ground workers. The airline had reached contracts with unions representing Florida Express pilots and flight attendants earlier this year.

Under the Teamsters contract, new employees in ground support and reservations will earn $5 an hour compared with Braniff's starting salary of $6 and $6.25 an hour. New workers will receive small pay raises until December, when they will reach the starting salary level of Braniff workers, Burnette said.

New workers initially will earn 83 percent of the starting salary of Braniff employees. The percentage will increase as the raises are implemented. Under a typical two-tier system, new employees start on a B scale earning about 65 percent of the amount earned by A scale workers, said Molly Smith, a spokeswoman for Future Aviation Professionals of America Inc., an employment information service in Atlanta. After about five years, B scale wages usually merge with the A scale salary level.

Florida Express workers will be integrated into Braniff's work force based on seniority under the new contract that was approved last week. Braniff has not laid off any workers; instead, it has offered workers other positions if their jobs are being eliminated.

Braniff and Florida Express will remain separate corporate entities under the Teamsters contract that expires Dec. 1, Burnette said. During that period, ground workers for the two companies will not be allowed to transfer from one company to another, he said. Florida Express now flies as Braniff Express.

The airline had hired some employees at $4.50 an hour before the union contract was approved. One employee, who did not want to be identified for fear of being reprimanded, said some new workers had been promised pay of up to $7.50 an hour when the merger was completed.

''They're not meeting their commitments,'' the employee said. ''They're mispresenting what they will be doing for their people.''

Tom Hurd, Braniff's manager of training, said new workers had not been promised any specific pay increases until the union contract was approved. The airline intends to resolve the situation, which affects about 10 workers who say they were promised wages other than that negotiated with the union, Mueller said. He would not say how the situation would be resolved.

Burnette said employees will earn more working at Braniff than they did with financially strapped Florida Express. In addition, they will receive benefits such as medical insurance and paid vacations under the contract, he said.